\name{BCI}
\alias{BCI}
\alias{BCI.traits}
\docType{data}
\title{
The 6.25-ha individual mapped tropical forest plot on the Barro Colorado Island
}
\description{
This is only a subset (250m * 250m) of the whole BCI plot data censused in 1985.
}
\usage{
data("BCI")
data("BCI.traits")}

\format{
  A community with 30326 alive individuals with several traits in BCI.traits.
  The traits are
  \describe{
    \item{\code{tag}}{The unique tag number attached into each individual}
    \item{\code{dbh}}{diameter of the individual at breast height}
    \item{\code{date}}{Date tree was censused. This is a julian date, calculated as number of days since 1/1/81.}
  }
}
\details{
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Princeton University established the first Forest Dynamics Plot at BCI in 1980, as part of its comprehensive program of research in tropical forest biology, which includes plant physiology, canopy biology, and animal ecology. The first census was completed in 1982, revealing a total of approximately 240,000 stems of 303 species of trees and shrubs more than 1 cm in diameter at breast height. Recensuses of the plot in 1985, 1990, and 1995 revealed the remarkable dynamism and instability of tropical tree populations. Turnover is very fast by temperate forest standards, with average residency time of a tree in the canopy layer at only about 45 years. Between 1982 and 1985, 40\% of the tree species in the plot changed by more than 10\% in total abundance, apparently as the result of a severe El Niño drought in 1982 that elevated death rates to up to twenty times those of non-drought years. Researchers are currently analyzing the effects of the recent 1998 El Niño. In addition, studies of canopy cover suggest that forests of central Panama are changing due to a long-term decline in rainfall. These discoveries indicate that tropical forest may be much more vulnerable to global climate change than has previously been supposed. The plot is maintained by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. 

The Forest Dynamics Plot of Barro Colorado Island has been made possible through the generous support of the U.S. National Science Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and through the hard work of over 100 people from 10 countries over the past two decades. The BCI Forest Dynamics Plot is part the Center for Tropical Forest Science, a global network of large-scale demographic tree plots.
}

\references{
Condit, R., Hubbell, S.P., and Foster, R.B. 2005. Barro Colorado Forest Census Plot Data. URL http://ctfs.si/edu/datasets/bci. 

Condit, R. 1998. Tropical Forest Census Plots. Springer-Verlag and R. G. Landes Company, Berlin, Germany, and Georgetown, Texas. 

Hubbell, S.P., R.B. Foster, S.T. O'Brien, K.E. Harms, R. Condit, B. Wechsler, S.J. Wright, and S. Loo de Lao. 1999. Light gap disturbances, recruitment limitation, and tree diversity in a neotropical forest. Science 283: 554-557. 
}

\examples{
data(BCI)
str(BCI)
plot(BCI)
}
\keyword{datasets}
